1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an extension barrel and, more particularly, to an extension barrel adapted for connection to a pneumatic gun and being capable of coating the bullets projected from the pneumatic gun with a desired color for identification purpose.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Paintball game has been considered as an adrenaline sport, in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by shooting paintballs or BB bullets from a pneumatic gun (commonly referred to as a paintball gun). The game simulates battlefield combat, where some players attack or defend against other players in a virtually real manner.
Rules for playing paintball vary, but can be roughly categorized into those for professional competitions and those for recreational contests. In a professional paintball competition, players are typically divided into two teams which occupy similar game fields scattered with similar terrains and bunkers, and the game is governed by a sound and complete set of rules and officiated by qualified referees. Depending on the rules, a professional paintball game can be played by two teams of five, seven or ten players, with the sevens being the most popular format worldwide. In order to catch up this trend, all of the tournaments organized or sponsored by the Chinese Taipei Paintball Game Association are now played by teams of seven players.
The recreational contests are normally taken place for pure leisure purposes. An amateur player may simply team up with himself or with various numbers of friends to constitute a paintball team of one, five, seven, ten or even more than one-hundred player (s) to fight against other teams. The rules for a recreational contest are relatively soft and free-style, so long as every player wears protective equipments and has a good time.
In either case of professional competition or recreational contest, players are required to wear protective masks and equipped with pneumatic guns. The pneumatic gun is mounted with a compressed CO2 tank, so that a player may release the CO2 propellant by pulling the trigger of the pneumatic gun to propel paintballs or BB bullets through the barrel. Win or loss of the game is normally determined by wiping out the opponents.
The conventional paintballs used as the ammunition for the pneumatic gun typically have a brittle shell that encapsulates dye and tends to break upon impact. Therefore, the objects hit by the paintballs will be tagged with dye and can be easily identified. However, this dye-filled spherical structure is much less than ideal in view of its complexity in structure and difficulty in manufacture.
The commonly used BB bullets are made of plastics or ceramics. They are unsatisfactory for use in paintball games, since their volume is too limited to accommodate dye material. As a consequence, the objects hit by the BB bullets cannot be tagged with dye and can hardly be identified.